Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-14

SWlnton, eOWderlY, ROBERT owen, MAI
thus nor Marx, that we must turn in or
der to find the true philosophy of finance
and industry, out it is to the greatest OF
all, TO God, ''for it is He that giveth thee
power to get wealth"
Many writers have invented ingenious
theories, advocated with learning and
fancy, but time has proved them all to be
partial, incomplete and inadequate. Each
has been too ready to declare exceptional
cases to be general laws. Nor would 1t
be possible in brief paper, like the pres
ent, satisfactorily to handle so large and
important subject, which has Its foun-
dations in the nature OF man and his con-
ditions on the earth. A mere suggestion
is all that can be expected or that will be
attempted.
Relatively speaking, all men are under
the same conditions as was Adam at his
first creation. All the world was his, and
it is each mans now. The commsnd was
laid upon him, subdue the earth! and that
command rests upon all men now. That
command imposes upon ev ry man the
necessity Of working, and it establishes
the condition by which alone any mai can
make anything his own. Adam owned
nothing except what he reduced into rs
individual possession by effort, and the
same is true of all his descendants.
His descendants receive the same kline
of common Inheritance which he nd
from God-the air to breathe, the ear n
to tread, water to drink, food to eat, Sic y
for refreshment, appetite to enjoy, eyes
to see, ears to hear, nerves to touch, the
nose to smell, and the physical, intellec-
tu6l and moral powers. In one sense,
Adam was the richest man that ever Yas,
for the whole world was his. And yet,
in that common way, each one OF all his
myrisds of descendants is equally rich as
he. His power to work was IS much 8
part of his general endowment as Yves the
world. And in the modern acceptatlon
of the word ownership, he really owned
only what little ne appropriated to b m
self by taking actual possession of 1t, tlat
is by obeying the law, "subdue the earth,"
that il by effort or work. Work gave him
wealth; work WAS his wealth. And the
same Is true of all of US, six thousand
years after him. The terrestrial cOndi-
tiors change not. The law of wealth is
as unaltered as that Of generation, of
death, of gravitation, Of electricity.
Adams power intelligently to work YVES
the one faculty without which all his other
gifts were useless, and it transmitted it
self into whatever he gathered or pro-
duced. This was applied for his own
support, and Whatever was more than he
consumed became his surplus. And yet
this surplus was the same in essence as
what he consumed, and was equally
transmitted labor. From the great world
he created the smaller world in which he
md ooPh dnQG tho
This creation went first for his own con-
sumption, and what was left was surplus.
The same operation takes place now. 1t
is easier to see it when one man was the
whole population of the globe, than now,
when there are l 400 100000 men, and
each one is trying to live in utter disre
gard of the great truth that every man is
in precisely the same fundamental condi
tons as wss Adam. If Adam labOred, he
acquired; il ne labored much, he acquired
much; if he lsbored not, he had nothing.
The same is true OF each one of Us.
Labor may be moral, Intellectual or ply
steal, or any two or all OF these COM
bined. 1t may be performed by any fac
ulty or any organ. 1t is just as much
labor when performed by the brain as by
the hand or back. 1t was so with Adam !;
it is so now.
One divine quality of labor is that it
always produces more than enough. One
shsd has sufficient roe to produce TWO
million shsd. One farmer, unaided, can
produce crops to feed himself and ninety
nine others. Oae association of men
organized into one bank can hold their
oWn money and that of everybody else.
One oak will yearly produce seeds for
FIVE hundred more oaks. The earth will
support million times more people than
have ever been on it at any one time.
This power Of production and over-pro-
duction leads Us to snalyze labor; and we
find that itself is the production of these
seven thugs combined; brains, sinew,
materials, time, space, effort, rest. Capt.
tai is the surplus of this production, after
deductng consumption. In this state
ment, waste, if, indeed, there is any
such thing, is concluded in consump-
tom. OF what use is the strength of the
granite left in the quarry? OF what use
is the exertion of an idiot unguided by
brains? OF what use are the plans of the
intellect with no sinews to execute them?
OF what use are unoccupied time and
spaUlP OF what use is effort without its
continuity and reproduction by rest? In
order to utilize one another these seven
must Cooperate, and the result is labor,
the surplus of which is capital.
The vociferous orators have taken too
little notice of the truth thst rest is Just
as much q necessary part of labor as
sleep is of life. We live while we sleep,
and labor lives during, and cannot live
without rest. And the.many calculators,
either elegant or stupid, have taken no
account nf rest as an element of labor;
and this has helped to crumble their
theories, which have been like images of
iron set upon feet of clay. The command
to rest is just as authoritatively laid upon
mankind as the command to subdue the
esrth; and disobedience only works
mans deterioration and loss; it does not
repeal the command, nor change it as q
condition annexed to mans well-beigg
Labor is impossible without rest, which
is just as essential to it as is effort, Just
as essential as metal is to money.
This fact is recognized, but is attempt
ed to be distorted out of its natural rela-
lions by set of blind leaders of wage
esrners, who seek to raise the price of
the daily wage by demanding more rest
on each day than makes healthful COM